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Retina Imac as TV?

V

Vashti

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 24, 2003
95
1
New York, NY
I'd like to get your thinking about which imac is right for me. I plan to replace my 2009 macbook pro with a 27" imac. As far as my computer use (surfing the net, email, word, excel, light photo editing), the retina imac is way more than I need.

I am a bit of a videophile - and I was wondering whether this imac would make a good second TV when I'm not using it as my computer. (My television is a Pioneer Elite plasma - and I want something that won't pale in comparison)

If I play 1080P shows on hulu and blurays through a bluray drive, would it look better or worse than a regular 27" imac? I remember when flat screens came out, SD shows looked terrible on them because they weren't meant for that many pixels. Will the same be true of the retina imac? Would less pixels look better with 1080p content - or will this imac elevate the picture?

I tried going to the apple store to check this out. While there, the retina imac did indeed look worse with streamed 1080p content than the regular imac. But it occurred to me that this could be because of the vast quantity of machines streaming.

Do any of you have any thoughts on this? Thank you in advance for any help.
 
I don't think anything can ever beat the pioneer Kuro plasmas. They were the best tvs ever made. I had the smaller 42inch and really wished i had gotten the larger elites, heh.

But yeah, since blu Rays are max 1080p, it will still not look as good on a 5k screen. Hulu will be even worse cuz it only streams at 720p right?
 
Vashti said:
I'd like to get your thinking about which imac is right for me. I plan to replace my 2009 macbook pro with a 27" imac. As far as my computer use (surfing the net, email, word, excel, light photo editing), the retina imac is way more than I need.

I am a bit of a videophile - and I was wondering whether this imac would make a good second TV when I'm not using it as my computer. (My television is a Pioneer Elite plasma - and I want something that won't pale in comparison)

If I play 1080P shows on hulu and blurays through a bluray drive, would it look better or worse than a regular 27" imac? I remember when flat screens came out, SD shows looked terrible on them because they weren't meant for that many pixels. Will the same be true of the retina imac? Would less pixels look better with 1080p content - or will this imac elevate the picture?

I tried going to the apple store to check this out. While there, the retina imac did indeed look worse with streamed 1080p content than the regular imac. But it occurred to me that this could be because of the vast quantity of machines streaming.

Do any of you have any thoughts on this? Thank you in advance for any help.
Click to expand...
OK, leaving the Kuro out of the discussion, because it is in a completely different category of viewing, your question is whether one or the other, regular iMac or retina iMac, is better for watching 1080p video, and in my opinion they will be the same. Right now I have mine set up next to my very good NEC monitor, and I can see no difference, either playing video files or streaming. So for video, the regular iMac would be just fine, and you could configure one for a lot less money that the retina. That said, if money isn't an issue, there are real benefits to the retina version for any tasks dealing with text and photo editing.
 
FredT2 said:
OK, leaving the Kuro out of the discussion, because it is in a completely different category of viewing, your question is whether one or the other, regular iMac or retina iMac, is better for watching 1080p video, and in my opinion they will be the same. Right now I have mine set up next to my very good NEC monitor, and I can see no difference, either playing video files or streaming. So for video, the regular iMac would be just fine, and you could configure one for a lot less money that the retina. That said, if money isn't an issue, there are real benefits to the retina version for any tasks dealing with text and photo editing.
Click to expand...

Thanks FredT2 for a very helpful response. I was hoping that somehow the 5K iMac would make my blurays look amazing - but first hand accounts like yours were what I was looking for. Sigh.

To those who tell me that this won't rival my 60" Kuro Elite, I do know that - and I wasn't expecting it to. I'm just hoping to get a computer which will allow me to do occasional film/tv watching in my bedroom without making me run screaming back to my television. (maybe a little hyperbole there)

I don't think I can justify the price for my tiny bit of photo editing - though I'm still tempted.

Thanks all.
 
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